


Couldn't Wait

by Valex_Charme



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Near Death Experience, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-15
Updated: 2012-11-15
Packaged: 2017-11-18 16:48:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/563238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Valex_Charme/pseuds/Valex_Charme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A roller coaster ride goes awry leaving Harry, Niall, and a dozen other people stranded far above the ground.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Couldn't Wait

**Author's Note:**

> Fill for: "can you write a narry one where they're at the amusement park as bestfriends and they get stuck on a roller coaster and harry confesses his feeling because he thinks he's going to die." - anon
> 
> This will also be my fill for my [1directionelite](http://1directionelite.livejournal.com/) bingo card: **power outage**
> 
> I hope you guys like it.

“Are you sure it’s a good idea to be eating cotton candy right now?” Harry asked Niall as they waited in line for the bumper cars. The line was about a fifteen minute wait full of excited children and their parents along with a smattering of teenagers on break from school. Luckily, only a few dozen girls realized who they were and no riots have broken out. 

Niall shrugged in reply. “Why do you ask?” he inquired through a mouthful of pink cottony sugar. 

Rolling his eyes, Harry couldn’t help but laugh a little. “Because you ate a turkey leg and two hot dogs not even two minutes ago!” Harry explained as he looked at his watch. 

The amusement park was lightly crowded tonight and most of the food stalls were void of lines which meant that Niall had to try one snack from each of them. And Harry and Niall had just been to the cotton candy vendor. 

Niall tried to hide the evidence of his food conquests by crumpling the paper doilies behind him. Harry didn’t need to know that Niall actually ate a turkey leg and _four_ hot dogs. “So, this is dessert,” Niall smartly replied with a candy pink smile.

“You say it like it’ll be your last for the night,” Harry said. The line moved forward prompting both boys to follow the steady trickle of people. 

Niall stuck out his tongue in reply. “Just wait ‘til I kick your butt. You’ll be sorry you didn’t let me buy that yard long Pixie Stix.”

“We’ll see,” Harry said confidently, shrugging him off.

The usher motioned for their group to come forward and Harry could see Niall run towards the cobalt blue bumper car he’d been eying since they got in line. A few parents shot glares at him, though, probably because they wanted their children to ride on that one. Or maybe because he almost pushed over some of their kids as he ran for it.

Harry settled for an innocent-looking car. It was yellow and had wings painted on its sides. _The better to beat up Niall’s shark bumper car with_. Once he was buckled up and ready, Harry was immediately drawn to Niall’s narrowed eyes which were glaring his way. An unspoken declaration had been made. 

“Alright, have at it!” the usher yelled enthusiastically as the bumper cars roared to life.

Niall furiously turned his steering wheel to the right while flooring the gas. He hit two carts on his way out of the sidelines and into the fray, sending their drivers a few inches away from their own steering wheels before being stopped by their safety belts. 

Harry smoothly drove his cart along the perimeter, watching out for Niall’s haphazard driving. He knew that he couldn’t hide too long. Besides, it would be unethical to leave these children and their parents to face Niall alone. 

“Ha!” a girl no older than 7 shouted at him when her parent bumped into Harry at her behest before moving on to more prey. Harry chuckled because the parent only shrugged towards before moving on.

Niall had spotted Harry right away even after the dodgems scrambled for each other. But much to his frustration, Harry had kept well away for over a minute now and they only had eight more minutes to play. Ruthlessly, Niall bumped and dodged his way through the crowds before he finally spotted Harry chasing after a fire truck painted car. 

“Hey!” Harry exclaimed as Niall t-boned him, the force pushing his entire body to the left before reorienting himself. 

“Head in the game, Styles!” Niall taunted. He quickly circled away to get ready for another bump as Harry scuttled away to the side. “You can’t get away from me!” he shouted after him but Niall’s pursuit was interrupted by a collision from his left where a girl’s parent bumped into him.

The little girl made a face at him as they drove away while Niall was left to resume his search for Harry’s cart. 

“Gotcha!” he heard Harry declare from behind him as his entire body followed the cart in its forward lunge. Harry’s signature cheeky laugh followed as Niall tried to turn around. “Head in the game, Nialler!” 

/

Harry grunted as Niall jumped on his back, forcing him to carry Niall piggyback towards their next destination. Even though Niall didn’t weigh much he was wearing two layers of clothes and it was starting to add up. But Harry didn’t mind because, like this, he could feel Niall was warm and cozy. 

Niall and Harry had just left the bumper cars with Niall thinking he won. Harry supposed that if they were keeping tally that Niall hit him more. But Harry made a mental note to not let Niall ever drive his car.

“Where did you put your garbage?” Harry asked once he noticed that Niall wasn’t carrying his doilies or cotton candy sticks. 

Niall tightened his legs around Harry’s waist and leaned close to his face. “That’s for me to know and for maintenance to complain about.” Harry shook his head. His curls brushed against Niall’s nose and made him sneeze.

“Eww!” Harry complained and he tried to dislodge his blonde friend from his back.

“No!” Niall whined and tightened his hold even more and settled his head where Harry’s neck met his shoulder. “I promise I’ll be good if you get me more cotton candy.” 

The two walked on; or rather Harry carried Niall back to the cotton candy stall. Niall felt insulted when Harry suggested that he hurry up in making his choice of flavour since “they all taste the same.” And Harry couldn’t stand it when Niall was even slightly disappointed in him, even if they were just playing around, so he ended up buying Niall and himself blueberry cotton candy and admitting “I guess this one tastes a little different.”

Niall walked by his side, idly eating the sugary webs that were turning his mouth and tongue blue. Harry tried not to dwell on how warm he felt with Niall curled around his back and just ate his candy too. 

“Harry!” Niall called through a mouthful of sugar.

“Hmm?”

Niall was pointing at a very large loop. A loop that shouldn’t be so large since this wasn’t a very big amusement park. This was supposed to be a small park with small rides. _Why is that so_ big _?_

“We should go on that!” Niall suggested. Before Harry could voice his dissent Niall had grabbed his hand and all thoughts of protesting flew when he got pulled along to the line. Though their hands were gloved, Harry could swear he felt Niall’s warmth through them. Or maybe he had a bad patch of cotton candy. 

“I can’t believe they have such a big loop. I thought this was a pretty low key park,” Niall commented as he got to the end of the line. The line was rather short. Niall surmised that it was probably because the lot of them were too scared. “But I’m not scared,” he boasted to Harry.

Harry gulped as he looked up at the slowly ascending roller coaster. It wasn’t the tallest roller coaster ride he’s seen but for a park that wasn’t on the same level as famous amusement parks this was pretty tall. “Yeah, me neither.”

“Yeah, buddy!” Niall jumped forward as the line moved forward when a few girls and their boyfriends decided not to go on. Harry could overhear the girls complaining about hearing unsettling rattling near the rails of the ride.

“Are you kidding me?” Harry mumbled under his breath as screams echoed in the night when the coaster dropped from its height. At least it wasn’t a completely vertical drop. 

“Did you say something?”

“Oh, nothing,” Harry replied, quickly hiding the slight terror from his eyes. But it soon returned when he saw the roller coaster quickly swing along the loop. 

“Woo!” Niall shouted with his arms up in the air and his excitement rolling off him in waves into the cool night but only managing to worry Harry more. “We’re getting closer, Harry!”

Harry smiled for him but was internally dreading having to go on the ride. It looked completely unsafe. He was sure there was a loose screw somewhere and that it was going to dislodge when he gets on. This place looked cheap. Why did he even go to this place when he could’ve gone to some big name theme park? 

“This ride would be totally better if it went backwards,” Niall thought out loud as he watched another group ascend the height before being pulled by gravity back down. Then up the loop and back down and through more minor drops. Through it all, Harry was imagining where the metalwork would fail and how a terrible tragedy was just waiting to happen.

He wasn’t normally apprehensive of roller coasters. He’s rode his fair share of thrilling rides but there was just something about this one that felt wrong.

“Next,” the park employee barked as he motioned for Niall and Harry to get on their seats.

“What?” Harry said, barely able to look around before Niall had pushed him onto their seats and slammed down the safety handles securely. He looked around at the smiling faces of excited patrons who were waiting for the roller coaster to ascend and come back down for their turn. 

Then he heard the signature sound of metal moving against metal as the coaster cruised forward towards the upward incline and butterflies just started biting the walls of his stomach.

“Oh my God!” Harry finally said as they were half-way the incline.

“I know right!” Niall exclaimed beside him, barely able to hold still as they continued their ascent. Niall chanced a glance to the side to see the people and their shadows on the ground, so small from up there. He could see the carousel with its horses and lights and the cotton candy stall void of its vendor. Then the coaster halted and he turned to Harry. “Yeah!”

Harry’s eyes were as wide as he could open them when the roller coaster went into freefall mode and he screamed. Not a girlish scream, mind you. It was like a battle cry a Celtic warrior would yell before he charged against a Roman legionnaire. But Niall was pretty sure he heard Harry whimper just before the lunge but he can’t be bothered with it right now. Not with his hands in the air and wind in his face. Plus the miscellaneous hollers and cheers of the other riders drowned out what Niall could have possibly heard coming from Harry. 

“Wooh!” Niall shouted into the night as they quickly left ground level to quickly climb up the side of the loop.

 _This is it!_ , Harry thought as he tried to produce a slightly more enjoyed-sounding exclamation from his mouth. All that came out though was a low vocalization of dread as they reached the top at alarming velocity before continuing down the other side of the loop without any problems. “Oh, God!”

“I know!” Niall shouted next to him. Harry could see the exhilaration in the Irish boy’s face, his eyes were wet from the whipping air and his cheeks were flushed against the cool night. Harry couldn’t help but feel better just seeing Niall enjoy himself. But a small drop brought him back to the reality that he was currently on a roller coaster he didn’t trust. 

Against the fast winds, Harry could see the platform where they came from getting closer meaning the ride was almost over. He would’ve been relieved at the sight but the roller coaster was still going at top speed. And before he knew it, they passed by the excited faces of the people in line waiting eagerly for their turn and the bored machine operators just leaning on their stations.

“One more time!” someone in front of them shouted and everyone else cheered. Niall whooped along as the coaster made an unexpected drop that Harry didn’t see before slowing down to ascend the initial drop again.

“The roller coaster goes twice?!” a surprised Harry asked Niall who was steeling himself for the first drop again. 

Niall didn’t get the chance to reply immediately because his mouth was too busy letting out his excited hollers, leaving it to resonate with those of the riders in front and behind him. 

“Don’t tell me you’re scared of roller coasters, Harry!” Niall shouted at him as they sped towards the loop.

“No!” Harry shouted back. “It’s just that—”

He was cut off by a brief jolt in the roller coaster that caused them to fall forward on their seats and for a few people to gasp in surprise. The cheerful noise of the patrons subsided quickly and the ride slowed down prompting the riders to look around their seats. As the roller coaster continued its slowing climb up the loop, the riders could see the lights of the entire amusement park blink a few times before becoming dark completely. 

Several girls screamed in terror as the lights completely turned off and the ride stopped completely near the top of the loop. The screams became more hysterical when they heard metal on metal noises from where the carts met the rails. It was like hearing a death knell meant just for them. 

“Oh my God!” Harry cried out as he tightened his grip on the safety restraints. His distress joined those of the other riders as they looked around for signs of help. 

“No fucking way!” Niall swore as he looked down at the park. He could see a few objects drop from the riders in front of him and the screaming didn’t cease. “Holy shit!” Niall turned to look at Harry. His hair was far above… or rather below his head. “Harry, are you alright?”

Harry quickly turned to his bandmate. “Yeah, I think so,” he said shakily. Niall could barely hear Harry’s reply through the screams of terrified riders, both men and women. “Why isn’t anyone helping us?”

Niall looked towards the ground again but he was getting dizzy from the blood rushing to his head. He couldn’t see much since the ground was still dark. But it definitely didn’t look like anything was happening to get them off.

“I can’t see anything,” Niall said. He tried to look around again and saw a scarf fall from a cart in front of him. “Shit, that’s a long drop.”

Harry squirmed next to him and tightened his grip further. He tried not to look down at the ground but it was getting difficult to keep his head from just dropping and his knuckles were white from both the cold and his grip.

“Please remain calm!” buzzed a voice through a loudspeaker. The screams ceased momentarily to let the speaker continue. But Harry could still hear quiet sobs from some of the riders. “We are doing the best we can to get you down as quickly and as safely as possible!” came the voice again.

There was a murmur of relief but Harry just breathed deeply. He chanced a look at the ground and he immediately regretted it. It was very dark and he couldn’t see where the voice was coming from. He felt nauseous but held it in.

“Harry,” Niall said. “You’re not looking so good.” 

Harry didn’t feel good either. It was taking everything in him not to wretch. Just the thought of his vomit falling down on his face because they were upside down made him even more uneasy. 

Niall was pretty scared. His heart was pumping a million times a second and his palms were a little moist from gripping on the safety latches. But he was more worried about Harry. The poor bastard looked like he was about to fall apart. “Hey,” Niall said, trying to sooth his bandmate. “It’s going to be alright. They’re gonna get us down.”

There was a reassuring hand on Harry’s shoulder and it made him slightly better. He was still scared shitless but when he saw that Niall was trying to calm him down, it made the entire ordeal a little easier to deal with. That is until the sound of metal grinding against metal echoed around them and the roller coaster jolted forward before stopping abruptly.

The hand on his shoulder tightened and Harry shut his eyes tightly. _I can’t go like this! This only happens to people in movies. We haven’t even started filming for ours yet!_

“Shhh,” came Niall’s calm voice again. “It’s cool. We’re not moving.” Niall tried to give Harry a reassuring smile but the other boy wasn’t looking at him. Harry was trying to curl into himself and Niall’s never seen Harry this scared. He was far from the most outrageous of the five of them but Harry wasn’t really the quiet one either. “Harry, look at me.”

Harry opened his eyes at the command and saw Niall. His eyes were quite bright in the dimness of the night. They were teary, too, but probably because of the wind and not his fright. 

“We’re gonna be fine.”

Niall gave him the best smile he could muster. It wasn’t the happy smile Niall would give him to elicit a laugh at a joke he made. It looked like a smile of someone concerned. Of someone who’s also fearing for the worst.

Harry nodded and blinked away his tears. The hand on his shoulder tightened and Harry smiled back. It was the smile of a thankful man. Thankful for having known such a wonderful person and having him beside him through a lot. “Thanks, Niall.”

“No problem,” Niall said reassuringly. 

It would’ve been easy to have waited it out after that but the coaster jolted forward again and traveled much further before stopping. The entire roller coaster was now resting at the top of the loop with the riders hanging upside down, the ground right below their heads. Niall saw someone’s cell phone fall and hit the metal railing and creating a chilling echo of how big a drop it is.

Niall cursed as he pulled back his hand from Harry’s shoulder to grip the safety bars currently keeping him snug against his seat. 

“Niall,” Harry said. His voice was trembling slightly and he sniffled a little before hearing Niall reply.

“Yeah?”

“If this is how it’s gonna—”

“Don’t even talk like that, Harry,” Niall interrupted. “We’re not gonna die. It’s just a roller coaster.” He sounded annoyed and confident. Annoyed at the park for being unsafe and confident that he and Harry were going to be fine. _Seriously, though. Things like this happen all the time and it always ends with barely anyone getting hurt._ Right? 

“Yeah, but—”

“No buts.”

“Okay,” Harry relented. But he continued, “But I want you to know that… that I really care about you.” Harry paused for a moment, trying to collect his words before he threw them right at the boy he’s liked for ages. The boy he’s come to know closer than a brother. 

Niall looked at the younger boy beside him as he poured out the contents of his heart. Harry spoke about the first time they met during the X-Factor, their busy nights on the Up All Night Tour. How he loved spending all of it with Niall. With his contagious laughs, his tight hugs, his bright grins. Even the bottomless pit that was his stomach! 

Harry’s eyes were tearful but he was determined not to shed a single one. He was gripping his own safety latch very tightly as he looked below him at the dark ground. Niall didn’t know that Harry felt that way towards him and he felt a little guilty for having never noticed.

“Umm, I don’t know what to say, Harry,” Niall said lamely. He really didn’t. What were you supposed to say when the lad you’ve come to know as your best friend tells you he’s always wanted to be more than that? What were you supposed to say when you realize you might have wanted that, too?

Harry nodded and looked at Niall. Calm blue eyes met turmoiled green ones. A strong hand snaked its way to hold a trembling one. Niall squeezed comfortingly and Harry closed his eyes. 

“I love you, Niall.”

/

“Our sources report that the park-wide power outage was caused by negligence on the part of the park. A former maintenance employee had tampered with the generators of the park…”

“Luckily for most visitors, the safety systems of the rides, including several roller coasters and circular swing rides, kicked in and left them stranded for hours…”

“Lawsuits are already being filed against the amusement park’s owner and managers for gross negligence…”

“Why is every news channel still covering this shit?” Niall crudely remarked as he continued flipping through the channels. His back rested against Harry’s stomach and his head lay against Harry’s chest. Warm arms were wrapped around him and Niall snuggled closer when the tuner settled on MTV’s Teen Wolf. 

Harry shook his head at the comment. “I just want to forget that night.” When he felt the blonde boy on him giggling, he poked him against his head firmly. “What’s so funny?”

“Nothing,” Niall said dismissing him. 

“Mhmm,” Harry hummed as he rested his chin on top of Niall’s temple as they watched Tyler Posey do teenage wolf things with Stiles.

“It’s just that you were so scared,” Niall finally answered. “You’re so cute when you’re about to die.”

Harry rolled his eyes. “Like that’ll happen again,” he deadpanned. “I’m never riding on a roller coaster ever again!”

Niall laughed and agreed. “But their cotton candy was pretty good.” He turned to look up at Harry to see if he got the hint.

Harry looked down at the expectant boy on top of him. He looked at the small collection of freckles scattered around his fair skinned face. He looked at the soft blonde hair tickling his neck. He looked at Niall’s dreamy blue eyes. Then he looked at Niall’s pleading pink lips and decided that maybe one more trip outside the safety of their room was worth it.

“You’re so cute when you’re hungry.”

**Author's Note:**

> I actually thought about having them killed because of some freak fail-safe malfunction. But then I thought about how I know nothing about roller coasters so that idea went in the trash.


End file.
